1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of printing bands and to method of making same.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following U.S. patents are made of record: Des. Nos. 238,205; 4,337,698; 3,418,929; 3,977,321; 4,173,184; and 4,263,242. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,977,321 and 4,173,184 show typical environments in which printing bands have been used. It is known to highlight the outer surfaces of raised, embossing characters on credit cards.
The sleeve of molded connecting printing bands shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings of the present invention is also prior art. The sleeve was comprised of raised printing characters and raised human readable characters. The sleeve was molded of a dark, essentially black elastomeric material. The human readable characters were coated with a light colored, e.g. white, coating or paint, and thereafter the coating was scraped, sanded or buffed from the outer surfaces of the human readable characters, rendering the human readable characters readable. This process had the disadvantages of producing dust and debris, creating scrap printing bands; and abrading the printing characters and smearing the semi-hardened coating, i.e. paint, onto the printing characters, in instances where the human readable characters and the printing characters were in an alternating pattern. Because the printing characters were raised to a greater extent than the human readable characters, the alternating pattern made the removal of the coating from the outer surfaces of the human readable characters especially problemsome.